Contents

History

Dr. Erik Selvig was a brilliant Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at Culver University. He is the mentor to postdoc Jane Foster as well as a friend of her father.

Myths & Legends

Selvig was travelling in a van with Jane, and their assistant Darcy, when the mysterious weather event subject of Foster's research unexpectedly resulted in a powerful vortex before them. As they struggled with the zero-visibility conditions, the van collided with a man who had stumbled out of the dust into their path. The man, who only announced himself as Thor, was injured again when Lewis tasered him, prompting them to take him to hospital.

The following day, Darcy made a surprise discovery when she noticed the figure of a man in one of the photographic images captured from the atmospheric event. While Jane realized that the newcomer might be able to shed some light on the event, Selvig was more sceptical. So began a lengthy disagreement between the two, with Foster theorizing about the possibility of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge and Selvig insisting that everything Thor had been saying about gods and other worlds was nothing more than delusional talk based on old myths.

Erik Selvig later befriended Thor, first securing his release from a temporary S.H.I.E.L.D. compound, and then drinking heavily with him at a town bar, prompting Thor to claim that Selvig had "made his ancestors proud". They parted company after Thor's true nature had been fully revealed and Selvig was finally able to see for himself the being behind the myth.

The Tesseract

Sometime later, Erik Selvig was summoned to the presence of Nicholas Fury. Fury opened a storage case, revealing a glowing cube. When Selvig asked what it was, Fury replied that it represented a significant source of power, if only they could find a way to tap it. Selvig accepted the challenge of investigating the object, while the apparition of Loki (who had been controlling him throughout the encounter) looked on with keen interest.[1]

Selvig continued to study the Tesseract, the name by which the cube had been called, and built a machine to control and focus its energy. He had been duped into doing so by Loki's influence, thus paving the way for Loki to travel to the Tesseract's location at the Project Pegasus installation and steal the Tesseract. Selvig, under Loki's hypnotic control, later built a more refined portal generator in order to open a portal in New York that allowed the Chitauri to invade Earth. Subconsciously, he also built a shutdown failsafe into the system, whereby Loki's sceptre could be used to deactivate it. Spying the sceptre where it had fallen during the battle against Loki and the Chitauri, Erik alerted Natasha Romanoff to this 'back door' addition and advised her on how to shut the system down. Following the Battle of New York, Selvig bid Thor farewell as he returned to Asgard with the Tesseract and Loki.[2]

Mental Trauma

A year later, Selvig suffered from mental trauma from his time under Loki's control. While performing research at Stonehenge, he stripped down and caused a scene, resulting in the police institutionalizing him. While committed, Selvig explains his theory to the other inmates of how a convergence between Earth and the other Nine Realms was due to occur and that the laws of physics would break down, which went unheeded. He was bailed out by Darcy and her intern Ian and upon exiting the asylum, spotted birds vanish through a portal in the air and come out of the ground beneath them, prompting Selvig to dump his medication.

The trio returned to Foster's apartment, where they awaited her and Thor's return. When the two explained their need to stop Malekith from returning the universe to eternal darkness, Selvig determined from his research of ancient times that Malekith would go to Greenwich as the convergence began to use the Aether. While Thor battled Malekith, Selvig and his friends assisted him by opening up portals with Selvig's equipment, disposing of Malekith's troops and starship. When Malekith was defeated, Selvig shared breakfast with his friends, as Foster explained that Thor has returned to Asgard to work out issues with his father.[3]

After experiencing a nightmare following his first confrontation with Wanda Maximoff, Thor went to visit Selvig for help tracking down Earth's manifestation of the Pool of Sight, a pool that had links to all of the nine realms and could allow those who entered it to see the future. After Thor's time in the pool allowed him to learn of the existence of the Vision, he returned to the Avengers. Selvig was later shown working with other Avengers allies such as Maria Hill and Nick Fury to set up a new Avengers base in Upstate New York.[4]